The first formal women’s organization was founded in 1905 by Concepcion Felix and was called Asociacion de Feminista Filipina. To understand the feminist movement it is best to refer to the poet, editor and author Tarrosa Subido in her 1955 A Golden Book on the feminist movement in the Philippines.
Being with women is always a learning experience. This time Ana Leah Sarabia, granddaughter of Justice Natividad Almeda Lopez, first introduced me to her grandmother’s legacy circa 1907 as a member of the Feminista Filipina and a social worker engaged in La Gota de Leche – meaning "just a drop of milk," a feeding program for the children.
As Mrs. Subido pointed out, the Asociacion Feminista Filipina had several objectives. Firstly, prison reforms on behalf of women and minors. Second, visits to shops and factories employing women and minors to oversee labor laws, which surely Commissioner Myrna Lao would have advocated as she acquaints women in livelihood programs through the Local Council of Women. Educational reforms were included such as conferences for women. Wow, Amelou Benitez Reyes, foremost woman leader for gender development, would have loved to live during that era for just one reason – education. Everyone knows she is of the Benitez clan of Philippine Women’s University engaged in community education and improving teachers’ training programs.
Moral campaigns were pursued in schools and factories as projects for the anti-vice drive against prostitution, gambling and drinking. Not of the least priority was the appointment of women to municipal and provincial boards of education, and municipal and provincial electoral precincts with the need to create committees to inspect municipalities.
Filipino women in 1910 found new channels of social service in the Anti-Tuberculosis Society and La Liga Nacional Filipina para la Proteccion de la Primera Infancia. Their aim was to combat tuberculosis through education and dispensary work and by 1912, the Society for the Advancement of Women came into being for additional social services. Within the same year, the society changed its name to Women’s Club of Manila. Right from the beginning, the Women’s Club of Manila adopted an earnest program of securing teachers for the insane women in San Lazaro Hospital. They also worked for the segregation of women prisoners from the old men’s Bilibid compound to the Correctional Institution for Women and a livelihood program for women prisoners after their release. They also convinced the government to appoint police matrons for women-detainees at the police station to protect women’s rights. Other programs for women included the establishment of day nurseries for working mothers, which we have now at the Department of Interior and Local Government. Also indigent women who worked for the National Food Production campaign were provided legal aid, given assistance to secure garbage incinerators for the City of Manila, and campaigned for Christmas gifts for the poor. Ninety-two years later, the same projects are still being advocated with women like Narda Camacho, the initiator for the centennial of the feminist movement in the Philippines and the campaign for a clean environment.
Eventually, the Women’s Club of Manila federated all existing women’s clubs and became what is now known as the National Federation of Women’s Club of 1921 that Leonarda Camacho now heads.
The National Federation of Women’s Clubs influenced adult education, women and child labor reforms, curriculum revision, teachers’ pension, rural credit associations, nutrition education, home extension services, public playgrounds. Other projects adopted in time by the government can all be traced back to the initiative of the National Federation of Women’s Club and its member-clubs.